Derailed, again

So ... here we go again. You know that whole tell God your plans thing I have mentioned in the past? Yeah. Well, time to roll that out again.

As you know, I have been ultra excited about creating my backyard firepit area. I have been harping all summer about it to anyone who will listen — or read about it. I even sent my before pictures to Herald Homes outdoor expert Carson Arthur for advice and opinion.

It has been talked about at length with You Know Who — about the size and shape and exact location in the yard, and type of fireplace and type of stone and what kind of covering to keep away the weeds before the stone/gravel gets laid ... and on and on and on. Decisions were made, for the most part — and chairs were bought.

I got a great deal more than a month ago at Canadian Tire on resin Adirondack chairs. Red ones. Really nice red ones. I watched the flyers carefully for a few weeks and headed out one Saturday morning to grab a deal I saw at another store. They were on sale alright, but they had two options — bright pink and bland brown. No thanks.

Off I headed to the Bedford Common, to Canadian Tire. They weren’t advertising a sale, but I can’t pass a Canadian Tire. And there they were — in the middle aisle — stacked high to the ceiling. On sale. And in red. My favourite shade to boot.

I grabbed four of them (by myself of course and four was all I could carry) and made my way to the front cash. Not a soul around to help, but I persevered. I scraped and scratched my arms, and almost knocked down a lovely older couple who had a look of sheer panic on their faces as I passed them in the aisle. I paid for the chairs and then carried them to the car, again, without any help.

My car is a hatch, so I was quite confident they would fit. I didn’t measure beforehand. I never measure. I operate on the principle that everything will fit, somehow. And nine times out of 10 I am right. So I put my purse in the front seat and opened the back. I put the seats down and then opened the hatch. And then I tried and tried and tried to get them in. I twisted and turned them, rearranged them 10 times. Nothing was working. Then I remembered the bungee cord in my glove compartment!

I stacked them nicely and put them in the car, back side down. They stuck out about two feet, so the hatch wouldn’t close. I grabbed the cord, feeling so superior — and it promptly snapped in two. Did I mention it was about 30 degrees and my blood pressure was about 200 over 300 at this point? In the end, I managed to make it work and got my chairs home. I went back for two more later that day.

So ... back to my original point. I had my chairs, I had my plans. You Know Who was on board. What could possibly go wrong?

And then it happened.

Mere days before we were scheduled to start digging up the backyard, he broke his heel in a fall. It happened in a split second and completely changed everything. To say he was in the worst pain I have ever seen anyone in would be an understatement. My heart broke for him immediately. All thoughts of what I wanted to do left my mind. It was all about him. And it will be, until he is completely mended. The firepit can wait.

If there is an upside to this, things are getting done inside the house. I finally painted the bedroom (more on that later) and will soon tackle the home office. That is a big project but one that has been a long time coming. And then maybe the kitchen.